DDC meal 13: pork cutlet and pasta

A gourmet dinner for 1: stuffed pork cutlet, pasta and a salad from the garden

Rick went hunting last night, so I was on my own for dinner. It’s been a while since I’ve made myself a gourmet dinner—I’m usually at least feeding Rick too when I pull out all the stops. But I wanted something good last night after a very hard and stressful week at work, and I wanted an interested Dark Days Challenge meal this week.

We popped into Mom’s Organic Market yesterday morning so Rick could stock up on chocolate crack (otherwise known as Trickling Springs Creamery Chocolate Milk), and I took the opportunity to concoct my dinner. I found a single serving pork cutlet from Aryshire Farm (VA), and thought it would be the perfect vehicle to wrap around some cheese and mushrooms (I think I’ve written before about my love of wrapping things in my meat). I grabbed some local mushrooms and found a beautiful raw smoked cheddar cheese from Nittany Valley Organics (PA). Everything else I already from a previous trip to the Maple Avenue Market: shallot, butter, and lemon pepper linguini from Pasta Valente (VA).

I will admit to having a brief moment of panic when I removed the cutlet from the packaging and found it had already been sliced into four strips. I was not sure how easily it’d roll around the mushroom and cheese. But I’m a culinary trooper and forged on. It worked out just fine, although I wasn’t able to stuff as much filling in as I’d wanted to (poor me).

The unexpected beauty of this meal is that the whole thing only took about 20 minutes start to finish. That meant I was able to get to my girlie movie that Rick would never in a million years watch with me that much faster! (The move was “Valentine’s Day,” and I thoroughly enjoyed it.)

I sprinkled extra mushrooms and cheese on my cutlets...there just wasn't enough on the inside!

Recipe: Pork Cutlet with Mushrooms, Shallots and Cheese

Summary: the smoked cheese adds a smooth flavor to the pork, perfect for a winter’s night.

Ingredients

3 oz pork cutlet

mushrooms, diced

shallot, diced

1 Tbs butter

¼ cup smoked cheddar cheese, grated

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Instructions

Melt the butter in a saute pan over medium heat. Add the diced shallots. Cook until tender, about 3 minutes.

Add the mushrooms and continue cooking until tender.

Transfer to a bowl and set the pan aside (you will cook the pork in it).

Sprinkle the grated cheese over the cutlet, then spread a thin layer of the mushrooms over it.

Loosely roll the cutlet and secure with a toothpick. Rub with salt and pepper to taste.

Return the pan to a medium heat on the stove and melt a little more butter.

Place the cutlet rolls in the pan and cook for about 3 minutes. With some tongs, turn and cook another three minutes. Repeat on the other two sides. You should be able to see when the meat is cooked through.

Quick notes

While you’re preparing the cutlet, bring a pot of water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain and return to pot. Stir in butter and salt.

Variations

You could also wrap these in bacon for even more porky goodness; I just didn’t have any local bacon handy.